IN FAITH
The days between Ash Wednesday and Easter have been set aside from antiquity for Christian repentance and introspection. Many of us prepare for Easter the way we sometimes do for the reception of the Lord’s Supper, with what Martin Luther calls “a fine outward training,” namely, “fasting and bodily preparation.”
There are a variety of ways to “bodily prepare” for Easter. Many of us attend Church services more frequently during Lent. Wednesday night services are a perfect example. Others give up meat or chocolate or some other luxury. None of these preparations are intended to earn the forgiveness of our sins, nothing can do that but the life and death of Jesus Christ. They are, however, undertaken in order to remind us of our mortality, of our complete dependence on the good will of God, and of our limitations as sinful mortals. Our hunger makes us mindful of Christ’s hunger in the wilderness.
Our prayers recall the constant conversation of our Lord with His Father and our Heavenly Father’s promise to hear our prayers for Jesus’ sake. Even unexpectedly breaking our fast before the season is complete can help remind us of how difficult it is to do even those things we want to do, let alone those things that are required of us. We need Christ to do for us and be for us what we cannot possibly do and be for ourselves. We need Him to be righteous for us and He is. We need Him to die for us and He does. We need Him to live for us and He does.
Fasting is something that our Lord enjoins us to do privately. “When you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you do not appear to men to be fasting, but to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.” (Matthew 6:17-18) Our Lenten preparations are something we keep to ourselves and are, at the same time, something we have in common with many other Christians. As you go through your “fine outward training” this season, I encourage you to seek an awareness of your need for God’s grace in Jesus, kinship with your fellow Christians and sympathy for those military families in our area who are enduring their own Lenten hardships, brought on by mobilizations and deployments.
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